1st Annual Without Limits Grassroots Organizing Awards

We are proud to announce the winners of the 1st annual Without Limits Grassroots Organizing Awards for contributions to girls and women in ultimate. This award honors the women and men who are working behind the scenes to involve more female athletes in Ultimate. Amazing work is being done across the country by organizers who captain and coach, start leagues, teams and youth programs, and who daily mentor the people around them. Without Limits is honored to celebrate all of these successes, both small and large scale, in the following areas:

Jumpstart Award- someone who has started a program in the last year
Sustained Contribution Award- someone whose dedication has contributed to sustainability
Competitive Edge Award- someone who has taken a girls or women’s program to new competitive heights
Creativity Award- for an individual who has used innovative program ideas
Community Synergy Award- for excellence in community-wide organizing

Each winner will receive a $250 grant from VC Ultimate to be used towards efforts that directly support or assist programming that benefits female players.

As a selection committee, it was an absolute privilege to read the nominations from across the US and Canada. Congratulations to all of the nominees, your community recognizes you!

Selection Committee:
Zara Cadoux
Michelle Ng
Leila Tunnell
Kami Groom
Heather Ann Brauer

Community Synergy
Atlanta
Kirsten Shell, Ayah Rashid, George Li, Leah Tsinajinnie, Helen Laester, Anita Summers, Kim DiFranesco, Miranda Knowles, Kate Wilson, Celine Sledge, Maddy Frey, Paddi White, Katherine Wooten, Emily Lloyd, Hannah Leathers, and the Atlanta Ozone Women

Community Synergy was not one of the original categories, but as a Selection Committee, we couldn’t help but notice the amazing energy coming out of Atlanta. It seems like this entire community nominated each other! There is so much happening in Georgia! This year, a new women’s club team Outbreak has been started to provide more opportunities for women to play. This year is the first time that there is an all-girls YCC team from Atlanta. A new organization, Atlanta Women’s Ultimate has formed.

Below are some highlights from this community that seems to be bursting at the seams!

Kirsten Shell started the Women’s Development Committee in 2013 as an arm of the Atlanta Flying Disc Club. Through the Women’s Development Committee, Shell has spearheaded strengthening local league participation by using surveys to heighten awareness of gender in leagues, shifting the gender ratio from 5:2 to 4:3, and expanded the women’s league. The success of the Women’s Development Committee has spawned a new group, Atlanta Women’s Ultimate (AWU), that Shell also helped form. Shell also coaches high schools boys and girls. Katherine Wooten says that “Kirsten’s commitment to working behind the scenes is impressive, and she’s been doing all of these things with little to no recognition.” Well Kirsten, you’ve certainly caught our eye!

With a “if you build it they will come” mentality, Helen Laester, Anita Summers, and Kim DiFranesco started the first ever girls YCC team in Atlanta this year. Miranda Knowles describes them as the Three Amigas, noting that “they didn’t start the YCC team because it was easy or they wanted their daughters to play on the team, but because they saw the need and the desire from young female athletes in Atlanta.” Katherine Wooten, Emily Lloyd, and Hannah Leathers are leading the team as coaches.

Ayah Rashid and her family reached out to George Li of Atlanta Flying Disc to get ultimate into Mohammed School in Atlanta, because not only is ultimate fun, the SOTG honors female athlete’s commitment to Islamic Ad’ab, an ethical way of interacting with people. Li reached out to Leah Tsinajinnie to coach. Tsinajinnie says of Rashid, “Ayah was the catalyst for starting a girl’s team at Mohammed. Her strong ability to bring a team together out of seemingly nothing is impeccable and is positively correlated with her love of ultimate. It has been an absolutely joy coaching such a young, strong girl.”

With such strong, start-up organizers in Atlanta, we can’t wait to see what this community does next!

Jump Start Award
Chloe Carothers-Liske & Hannah Wells

Chloe Carothers-Liske and Hannah Wells played in the open high school division for the past two years on the Berkeley High Coup and won two consecutive state championships. This year, they set a goal to work together to create a coordinated all girls program with the aim of preparing for and fielding a team for the Western Region High School Championships. Together, they recruited players, organized weekly practices, and turned their dream of playing on all girls team into a reality. Says Elizabeth Wells, Hannah’s mother, “both girls took the time and effort to encourage and grow something they love- but not just to benefit themselves. They did it also to benefit the girls they play with and to work to grow the sport of women’s ultimate in the SF Bay Area as a whole.”  Their efforts paid off, and they sent one of the first girls’ teams from CA to Westerns, and the first team since the Alameda Sweet Meats attended from 2006-2010.

Carothers-Liske and Wells have jump started a process in an area that has little to no programming focused solely on girls. They don’t plan to stop there: they have already expressed plans to grow their team, compete in women’s league in the fall, and compete in high school tournaments– even if that means traveling out of state. They are also brewing plans to do outreach to middle schools in the Bay Area and to potentially do clinics with girls at the elementary school level. Currently, Chloe and Hannah are working on a mission statement, publicity, a plan for growth, and scheduling bi-monthly meetings to formalize plans and activities.

Not only are these two girls obviously talented and driven organizers, they are proving to youth and adults that they don’t need to wait around for systems to be built for them– they’d rather take growing the girls division into their own hands. Chloe and Hannah, we salute you!

Creativity Award
Hana Kawai

Hana Kawai’s contributions to the ultimate community are impressive. She was nominated in every single category. While her contribution to sustainability, starting new programs, and raising levels of competition are clear, what stands out is the level of creativity in the programs she is a part of. She is not only teaching ultimate, she uses it as a tool to empower youth to use their voice and to organize. Hana is committed to diversity and increased access in our sport, and we can all learn from her dedication to social justice.

In 2010, Hana co-founded the All Girl Everything Ultimate Program (AGE UP), which brings female ultimate players from different races, socioeconomic status, and areas of Seattle together to learn about social justice and introduce elementary schoolers to the sport. The vision of this program has inspired ultimate organizers around the country: AGE UP deliberately steps outside of the more affluent communities that typically play ultimate, actively engages students in social justice concepts, and supports a pipeline of players by having older youth teaching younger ones. Thanks to this program, a larger, more diverse, and more inclusive community of girls players is being created in Seattle.

Hana’s commitment to broader inclusion and access in the sport extends to the team she has coached since 2010, the Franklin High School Girl’s team. 70% of students at Franklin qualify for free or reduced lunch, 95% are students of color, and for 55% English is a second language. Since 2010, Hana has taken the program from developmental to competitive in city-wide tournaments. Her players face significant financial barriers, and Hana has to be creative to ensure that money, equipment, and transportation do not stand in the way of playing ultimate. She is always willing to fundraise and speak to parents if obstacles arise. Hana’s inclusiveness continues in the off season, when she holds open practices in South Seattle and coaches everyone who comes, regardless of whether they are from rival high school programs.

We hope that one day, organizing for a more inclusive community rooted in social justice is the norm. When that day comes, we will look back at organizers like Hana and thank them for being creative enough to step outside the mold and challenge us to be better.

Competitive Edge
Emily Lander and Emily Langland

We often don’t get to recognize teams or programs that have grown tremendously considering their scale, but that are not on the national stage. Amanda Borders says, “while the number of women that play in Nebraska can still be described as a handful compared to other, larger ultimate communities, the number of women playing in Nebraska has grown substantially because of these women.” The amazing women she is referring to are Emily Lander and Emily Langland.

Langland is the reason there is a women’s team at Nebraska, her commitment and passion for growing and developing the program are what sustained it’s existence. After playing on the team, she continued to be integral to the program’s development as the coach. Enter Lander, affectionately called “Newmily.” She became captain of the team in 2012 after Langland graduated and grew the roster from an average of 8 people at practice to an average of 17. Though recruiting is a team effort, Lander is reportedly the person primarily responsible and most committed to keeping women involved throughout the year. Iowa State Captain Cami Nelson says about Lander that, “her drive and dedication to her program and to the sport is what transforms a program from recreational to competitive. She is loved by every one of her teammates.”

Nelson also emphasizes that Langland “has an obvious love for women’s ultimate. Playing on Heist she travels from Nebraska to Wisconsin practically every weekend for practice. She has used and brought the knowledge of the game to the Nebraska team she helped to found and now coaches. As a coach she has brought the Nebraska women’s college team from inexperienced to finishing 5th at Regionals. She has coached players recognized with the all-region award. It is obvious that her team looks up to her, and she cares deeply about her team.”

Robyn Wiseman, co-captain of Heist and coach of Wisconsin Bella Donna, shared similar sentiments to Nelson that “under their leadership the team went from non-existent to finishing in the top 5 in the North Central region in a few short years.” Wiseman believes this is because “they have reached out to create numerous meaningful playing opportunities for women throughout Nebraska.” In addition to this incredible drive that has made their team more competitive, Wiseman says “what is even more impressive is that they have developed the true competitive program while improving their own on-field abilities, both earning all-region honors from their peers. Their continuous journey of excellence while still maintaining [a] relentlessly positive, spirited, and passionate attitude inspires all women in the Midwest to strive for more.”

Emily Lander and Emily Langland deserve the Competitive Edge award for taking their team to new heights, and for doing it by building a positive, spirited program.

Sustained Contribution
Miranda Knowles

Miranda Knowles has given back to women’s ultimate all that it has given her and then some, for years. It’s hard to capture all that she has done as a role model on the field and a leader off the field over the past decade – because it is just incredible. She has tirelessly created opportunities for women and girls to play at every level and empowered them to grow as players and members of the community. Many of her players, now coaches themselves, want to continue her legacy. Miranda started coaching some of the MISCES girls while in college at Carleton and went on to win the Callahan Award. After moving to Seattle for graduate school, she quickly jumped into the ultimate community and continued to bring change to the sport. While in Seattle, she coached Seattle MOHO, University of Washington – Element, Lakeside Big Cats, Seattle Academy Cardinals, and Seattle Small Fryz. Giving back to the sport at every level she brought a new competitive edge to the Seattle youth ultimate community when she became the first Small Fryz coach in 2008. Miranda coached the Fryz for five years as they evolved from a mixed team to single gender and mixed teams. The Small Fryz girls team that she coached in 2012 went on to win the Paideia Cup and tournament spirit award. This reflects so strongly back to the way Miranda coaches, instilling confidence, inspiring competitiveness, encouraging community, and embodying great spirit of the game.

During this time, Miranda was also a role model on the field for young women everywhere on the national stage, she played for Riot from 2004 to 2010 and served on the leadership and as a captain for a handful of these years. She was also nominated for the Kathy Pufahl award by her teammates more than once during this time. Miranda has been an ambassador for the sport on the world stage representing USA as both a juniors player, adult player, and junior girls’ coach.

Miranda left to teach in Asia in 2012 and just continued her work as an ambassador of the sport – becoming quickly integrated in the ultimate community in Southeast Asia where she coached youth, led women’s clinics, and co-captained a competitive team out of Shanghai.

Within months of moving back to Atlanta in 2013, Miranda has become a catalyst for change in the Atlanta community. She has been involved in creating opportunities for growth and development of the youth and women’s community, through her coaching at Paideia, involvement in the Atlanta Women’s Ultimate group, and her work developing a new club women’s team. Her outreach doesn’t stop with Atlanta, she has coached at Ultimate Peace for three years and was named the Director of Coaching for this year. The depth of Miranda’s contribution to the ultimate community world wide over the past decade makes her the obvious choice for sustained contribution.

Kirstie Barton, a former Seattle Fryz and Seattle Academy Cardinals player captures it perfectly, “Miranda’s dedication to girls and women’s ultimate has led her to be a role model for people of all genders. For some (me) she initially appeared to be more of a celebrity than a role model due to her extraordinary success on the field. But her encouragement and support allows the idolizing to fade over time as her respect for her players deepens their confidence in their own abilities.”

Not only has Miranda’s contribution sustained for over a decade, but has continued with the same enthusiasm and passion that made her fall in love with the sport as a high school player. These waves of change and momentum for the development to the girls’ and women’s communities for which Miranda was a catalyst for are ones that we all hope to continue to build upon, together, forever.

Congrats to all the nominees, your community recognizes you!
Aisling Winston, North Carolina
Anna Chute, Massachusetts
Atlanta Ozone Women, Georgia
Ayah Rashid, George Li, Leah Tsinajinnie, Georgia
Britta Jones, North Carolina
Chloe Carothers-Liske and Hannah Wells, California
Christianne Marceau, Quebec, Canada
Colleen Conrad, Texas
Cory Keeler, Massachusetts
Emily Langland and Emily Lander, Nebraska
Hana Kawai, Washington
Heather Zimmerman, North Carolina
Helen Laester, Anita Summers, Kim DiFranesco, Georgia
Ilana Grubin, Pennsylvania
Jacob Nuxoll, Virginia
Jill Simmerman, North Carolina
Joey Grey, Washington
Josh Hartzog, North Carolina
Kathy Rowe, Pennsylvania
Keith Raynor, Georgia
Kristen Shell, Georgia
Lindsey Burke, Alberta, Canada
Mandy Brady, Ontario, Canada
Miranda Knowles, Georgia
Miranda Knowles, Kate Wilson, and Ozone Women, Georgia
Sam Wood and Laura Meyer, Wisconsin
Sangwha Hong, Massachusetts
Susan De Cicco, Wisconsin